Buffy Fish Owls from all around Europe came to Prague Zoo
26. 02. 2014
Prague Zoo has become European leader in the breeding of owls from south-east Asia – Buffy Fish Owl. Prague is now the only Zoo, which successfully reared fourth owl chicks and now participates in establishing new couples of birds brought from all over Europe.
Individual sub-species of Buffy Fish Owls can be identified according to colouring. Photo: Antonín Vaidl, Prague Zoo
Why birds didn´t mate
Why have zoos had such difficulties rearing Buffy Fish Owls in recent years? The answer to this question has been sought by experts from Prague Zoo, who as the only specialists in Europe have managed to repeatedly rear owl chicks the natural way. “There are four sub-species of Buffy Fish Owl. In Europe, however, these owls have all been kept without determining sub-species. Considering the success of our adult couple, and the experience we have in rearing these owls, we decided to bring to Prague incompatible couples from Germany, Belgium and Italy, in an attempt to establish new couples,” Antonín Vaidl, curator of birds at Prague Zoo, explained.
They don’t get on
At this opportunity Prague experts discovered that in Europe there are Buffy Fish Owls of both continental and island sub-species. “This may be the reason why the couples wouldn’t mate, and why there has been generally little success in breeding,” Vaidl explained. Individual sub-species of owl vary in colouring – birds of the island sub-species have a richer, more reddish colour, more distinctive black markings on the chest and a darker iris. The difference isn’t too apparent at first sight, but it may have an influence on attractiveness when pairing. Keepers at Prague Zoo now face a big challenge – they have to differentiate between individual owls and choose the best partner for each of them.
New young in Prague
“At the same time, when we are sorting out pairs throughout Europe, we are also celebrating a new addition. The female of the most successful breeding couple in Prague, and also in Europe, is now raising its fourth chick in the nesting box,” Vaidl says.
„ Prague Zoo has been keeping Buffy Fish Owls since 2002, when it received a pair of birds from Myanmar. Natural breeding in zoos is rare. The female usually lays one white egg, which she then sits on for 35 days. The first chick hatched in Prague in January 2009, another followed in November 2010 and a third in October 2012. The latest owl chick has so far remained in the nesting box in the lower part of the zoo, in an enclosure known as the Pheasantry (Bažantnice).
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